


Febuwhump 2021 No. 10

by Sapless_Tree



Series: MacGyver Febuwhump [10]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Acrophobia, Fear of Heights, Febuwhump, Febuwhump 2021, Gen, Scared Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Whump, macgyver whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29689110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapless_Tree/pseuds/Sapless_Tree
Summary: Febuwhump 2021 No. 10Prompt: "i'm sorry, i didn't know"Was it possible for him to have gone higher up after falling? Mac knew the answer was no, but the ground looked so much farther away now. It was dizzying; a telltale lightheadedness invaded Mac’s senses as he gripped the railing harder, too terrified to have the sense to pull himself back up and over it.
Relationships: Angus MacGyver & Matilda "Matty" Webber (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Series: MacGyver Febuwhump [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137668
Comments: 7
Kudos: 42
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Febuwhump 2021 No. 10

**Author's Note:**

> okay so I literally don’t remember if there was a point in which we got to see Matty find out about Mac’s fear of heights, but uh, I wasn’t about to go search through several episodes for something I don't ever actually remember seeing in the first place sorry. 
> 
> But like, Matty had to find out at some point and I’d like to think she found out the hard way :)

The start of Matty’s relationship with her new team had been... well, rocky would be the kindest word for it. She had still been figuring out how exactly to utilize every tool she had been given with this team. Don’t mistake, she had never been figuring out where she stood with all of them. She was their boss and was confident enough in her own abilities to take the role in stride. But that didn’t mean she had known just how to most effectively use the team when there were lives on the line. 

Matty found out quickly that separating Mac and Jack was a hard and fast way for things to go south very quickly. And that generally, mixing and matching agents didn’t work well for the band of misfits she’d been presented with. They knew how to work together, and had put up with her 'new boss testing the waters’ routine. And after observing how they worked with and around one another on a few low-stakes missions, she was able to get a better handle of just what-- just _who_ she was working with.

She trusted them together and dared think she was fond of them. Soon enough, higher-stakes missions were handed off to what Matty could confidently call her best team of agents. A mismatched, funny sort of group, but the best one she had nonetheless.

Which brought her to today’s mission. It had gone sideways more than once, it practically did a barrel roll with the amount of shoddy intel they had worked with. There had been a couple of close calls-- closer than Matty cared to think about, but had to anyway as she addressed them during the debriefing.

When it was all said and done, the group, weary and sore but none of them seriously injured enough that the debrief had to be delayed, got up to leave the war room.

“Mac,” Matty called. The blond stopped, facing her attentively. “Can you hang back a minute?”

“Yeah, sure,” Mac said. 

Jack stopped too, offering to wait. But Mac merely told Jack he didn’t need to, and that he’d be home for beers around the fire pit in no time. Jack seemed placated with the response, if a little hesitant, but left anyway, calling something over his shoulder about Attila as he left. 

“Is something wrong, Matty?” Mac asked, making his way over to one of the chairs and sitting himself down on the armrest of it. 

“I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about what happened with today’s mission,” she said. “Specifically on the fire escape.”

Mac’s face fell a little, and Matty could see his eyes flick to the table for a second. There was no bowl there, but if there was, Matty was sure he would reach out for a paper clip and begin twisting in his hand.

“Right, that,” Mac said. “Look, Matty I--”

“No,” Matty interrupted. She could see the blond steeling his face, preparing for a proper scolding on how he messed up, locking away any type of emotion from his face as if mentally preparing for the worst. Things had definitely gone wrong that day, but she wasn’t there to reprimand. “I wanted to apologize.”

Mac’s eyebrows furrowed; of all the things she could have said, he hadn’t expected that. “I’m…” Mac trailed off for a second before getting back on track. “I think you lost me. What are you apologizing for?”

“Earlier today, on the fire escape,” she repeated, “I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard.”

Mac opened his mouth and then closed it again as if he wasn’t sure what to make of the apology. “We had a job to do, I get it. It’s really no big deal.”

It certainly hadn’t seemed like no big deal at the time.

_All day protecting this man had been exhausting. It seemed everywhere they went, someone was trying to kill Phoenix’s asset-- Clay Olson. Olson was set to testify in an upcoming trial that had the potential to put away a number of pretty bad criminals, but there was suspicion over dirty fed involvement. So, Olson opted out of witness protection and would have refused Phoenix’s offers for safe transport to the trial if it hadn’t been for the first attempt on his life. Almost getting shot had a way of changing a person’s opinion on a matter._

_And so there they were, Mac and Olson setting themselves up in the apartment room that had functioned as a safe house while Jack scouted out the building’s other floors for suspicious activity. Riley was watching a sat view of the perimeter from the safety of Phoenix’s war room, Bozer right by her side._

_The apartment room was on the top floor of the complex, and Jack had been searching the floors from top to bottom._

_“On the fourth floor now,” Jack reported. “Nothin’ so far, I’ll be done soon, and then maybe we can catch some z’s before we’re waking bright and early to more assassins trying to off our buddy there.”_

_“Could just be me,” Bozer said, “but maybe you shouldn’t take the threat on Olson’s life so casually?”_

_“Not our first rodeo by a longshot, kid,” Jack answered, making his way down to the third floor to clear it. “Besides, it’s not like he can hear us.”_

_“No, but I can,” Matty said. “Just focus on clearing that complex.”_

_Mac couldn’t help but smile at the team’s goofing as he finished setting up the room and taking stock of the supplies that had been left there for them._

_“It sounds like Jack’s almost done,” Mac informed Olson. “He should be back any minute now.”_

_Olson nodded. “All right. Thank you. For everything, I mean, all of you.”_

_“You testifying is thanks enough,” Mac said kindly. “If the trial goes well, you’ll be helping save a lot of lives.” Olson nodded again-- he knew why he was doing this, that didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking. “How are you holding up?” Mac asked him._

_“Well,” Olson huffed out a laugh. “I certainly never thought that this is where life would lead me. I’m, well-- I could hardly be called a good man. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in life. But this? It’s one of the few things I’m sure I've made the right decision about.”_

_Mac opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a knock at the door. Jack must have finished clearing the building already._

_“Wow, Jack, that was fast,” Mac said as he unlocked the apartment door._

_Jack, who was on the stairs, making his way down to the first floor, paused. “What was fast, Mac?”_

_Mac didn’t have enough time to properly register the question before he opened the door. It was definitely not Jack if the handle of the knife slamming into Mac’s face was anything to go by. Mac stumbled back for only a second before the sudden intruder grabbed him and hauled him off to the side, sending Mac slamming into a bedside table and knocking everything off of it._

_“Mac, what was that? What’s going on up there?” Jack’s loud voice cut in harshly through the comms._

_The intruder was going for Olson. Olson dodged a swing from the knife and Mac grabbed the closest thing to him-- a bulky digital clock that had fallen off of the table, cable and all._

_“We’ve got some company up here,” Mac said, springing up into action and hitting the intruder at the back of the head with the clock to get the attention off of Olson. That seemed like a good idea until the knife was being swung at him instead._

_There was the familiar rustling over the comms of Jack hurrying back up to the top floor. “You just keep him busy, I’ll be right there.”_

_“Not a him,” Mac said, narrowly side-stepping another swipe of the knife. Their attacker was female-- a woman that was built like a brick wall and could hit hard enough to be mistaken for one. She swung with intent to kill, every movement hard and precise in a way that spoke of experience._

_Mac lunged at her, staying low to avoid the knife and trying to knock her off balance. It worked in making her stumble, but she pushed right back just as hard. The two struggled, the woman swinging wildly and Mac blocking and parrying the best he could with the digital clock._

_Olson practically leapt out of the way of the fray as the two moved across the room. A particularly rough lurch had her and Mac crashing through the window, broken glass shattering every which way as the two tumbled out onto the fire escape. The two crashed into the railing with a heavy thud, the force was enough to send the clock and the knife flying over the edge and falling to the ground-- the woman and Mac would have fallen right over the edge too if the fire escape hadn’t had a railing._

_Time seemed to stop as the items fell. It was a long,_ long _way down, and just the thought that that could have been them made Mac queasy._

 _The woman, however, didn’t seem fazed by it. Pissed that she lost the knife, sure, but not particularly rattled as she went at Mac like they didn’t almost just fall off a mid-rise. That was twelve whole floors before_ splat-- _Mac would have preferred a knife to the throat._

_Attempting to draw the fight back inside didn’t seem to work as the woman slammed Mac’s side roughly against the railing. And again. And again after that. The air rushed out of his lungs, and-- from the impact and from the nice view of the ground he was granted with each jolt-- Mac couldn’t get a proper breath in._

_Mac kicked out at her leg, and she crumpled. Mac took the opportunity to try and make his way back inside, but she recovered much more quickly than he had expected. Mac had barely gotten his foot through the broken window before she was grabbing him from behind. He struggled, but her hold was tight, pinning Mac’s arms to his side as she pulled him away from the window._

_He struggled anew, seeing she was headed for the fire escape’s railing. Mac’s breathing picked up and, before he had the chance to panic, she hauled him over the railing in one swift movement._

_Weightlessness. Panic. He thought maybe he yelled, but the blood rushing in his ears was much louder._

_Mac’s hands flew out wildly, smacking against the fire escape painfully before he finally grasped onto something other than air. White-knuckled, Mac held a death grip on the railing he’d caught. His arms shook as he breathed through what might as well have been a pinhole. Mac took a glance down below him, if only to see how far he’d fallen._

_That was a mistake. Big mistake._

_Was it possible for him to have gone higher up after falling? Mac knew the answer was no, but the ground looked so much farther away now. It was dizzying; a telltale lightheadedness invaded Mac’s senses as he gripped the railing harder, too terrified to have the sense to pull himself back up and over it._

_Mac squeezed his eyes shut, whispering out a curse. He was just going to hang there-- forever maybe, he figured, because there was no way he was going to move of his own provocation. Not when getting something solid under his feet meant lifting himself upward. Up was bad, he didn’t want to be any higher up. He was just going to stay right there where he wasn’t falling to his death and wasn’t moving any higher._

_“Mac?” Jack’s voice called._

_The blond forced his eyes open and looked up. He found Jack leaning over the railing two floors up (had he really only fallen two floors?) looking down at him. “Jack?” It was a thin and airy sound, and much shakier than Mac would have hoped._

_“Shit,” Jack breathed, but Mac caught the sound over the comms. “Stay right there man, don’t move,” he said, hurrying down the fire escape’s stairs. No problem there, seeing as how Mac planned on never moving again._

_Jack was soon on the same level as Mac, doing what he did best: talking (to distract Mac from his current situation). “I got to the room just in time to see She-Hulk toss you over,” Jack said as he leaned over the railing to help Mac up. “Snatched up Olson on the way out too, but Christ, she flung your skinny ass so fast I had to make sure you were okay.”_

_Mac made a noise in the back of his throat, not trusting himself to talk as Jack helped him up-- higher, too high, he was too high up. He needed to get_ down, _but the only way down from where he was, involved a long fall and a hard ground._

_“Easy, hoss, I got you. I ain't gonna let you fall,” Jack reassured. Even once Jack had helped him all the way onto the fire escape, Mac didn’t let go of the railing and Jack was supporting most of the blond’s weight. “You wanna let up the chokehold you got on that thing? I think you’re hurtin’ it,” Jack joked._

_Mac nodded jerkily, easing up slightly. Even the small movement caused Mac’s knees to buckle._

_“All right,” Jack said softly, easing Mac down instead of letting him merely crumple. “Just sit a second, get your breath back, yeah?”_

_“I’m glad you guys are okay, but you’re forgetting something important,” Matty spoke up impatiently. “You need to go get Olson.”_

_“Give him a minute Matty,” Jack said._

_“You two don’t have a minute. You need to go. Now,” Matty said._

_Going, that meant heading up two floors before Mac could be inside and safe from falling off the building. He didn’t think he had it in him to go up_ any _stairs, let alone two floors worth. He was exhausted, and frankly still not keen on the idea of being anywhere higher up._

_“Can’t,” Mac mumbled out quietly, hardly even aware he was going to say it before it was tumbling past his lips._

_“Agent MacGyver,” Matty’s tone was hard and clipped, the no-nonsense tone cutting through some of the lingering panic. “You will get up right now or our asset will die. Do you understand the consequences that will follow if Olson is killed?”_

_“Yes,” Mac answered, voice sounding a little more sure._

_“Then get your ass in gear, blondie.”_

_Priority numbers one, two, and three were: remember how to breathe, stand up, and don’t puke. Mac succeeded in two and three, taking a little more time with number one than he would have liked. But eventually, with help from Jack, Mac pressed on, shaky and only a bit teetery._

“Mac, I didn’t know about you and heights,” Matty said. “I could tell it was upsetting you, but I pushed you to keep going, and then to finish the mission after that. That’s why I’m apologizing. I’m sorry.”

“You don't need to apologize,” Mac said. “Olson would have died if we hadn’t gone after him when we did. We didn’t have any time to waste just because I’m afraid of heights,” Mac said, the tail end of the statement slightly mumbled as if he were embarrassed. 

“Maybe,” Matty said. Looking back on the mission, it was very likely that Olson would have died if she hadn’t pushed him. They both knew that. “But I could have been less harsh about it. I don’t doubt your skills as an agent.” She wanted to make sure he knew that. “I know that it can be worse sometimes, and merely an afterthought other times-- don’t think I didn’t see the report about you hitching a ride on a plane’s landing gear as it was taking off,” she said, smiling at the mental image. “I just wish you would have said something sooner.”

“Yeah, I should have,” Mac said. “It’s just-- it seems so…”

“Irrational?” Matty supplied. Mac nodded. “That doesn’t make it any less real.”

Mac looked her in the eyes as if checking for an indication that she was lying or teasing or any other number of things. But not finding anything other than sincerity, Mac let his shoulders relax, not realizing how tense he had been since she mentioned the fire escape.

“Thanks, Matty,” Mac said. She gave a small nod of acknowledgment, and that seemed to be enough for the two of them. “You planning to stop by?” Mac asked as he stood. Matty picked up her tablet off the table and turned the war room’s lights out as the two made their way out. “I think Bozer mentioned something about pork chops.”

Matty closed the door to the war room behind her, and the two began to walk down the hallway. “I wouldn’t miss it,” she said.


End file.
